High Octane Fuel

Most petrol stations provide customers with two different types of petrol. 95 octane is the standard in the UK. For a little extra per litre you can opt for 98 octane. The idea is that the higher the octane, the more power your engine produces when the spark plugs ignite the fuel, which makes your car accelerate faster and become more responsive.

To further increase the power your fuel provides, you can also use a fuel additive.

Fuel additives are available at most car shops such as halfords and you just pour it into your petrol tank. These additives increase the octane rating of your fuel. So, say you put 98 octane fuel in your car instead of 95 and you use a bottle of additive, this will take your octane rating up to 101!

The difference becomes very noticable when using both high octane fuel and fuel additive. More power all round, faster acceleration and slightly higher top speed. The downside is that it can become quite expensive over time if you do this everytime you put fuel in your car. Also as soon as you put regular fuel in your car, all that extra power you've got used to is gone!

I would reccomend only doing this if you have a "weekend to yourself" or for short-term use when you want more power out of your car temporarily.